The one with paint and food

Few things in life make me happier than a) risotto and b) painting. And both happened yesterday, so I shall blog about both! AH! We'll go in chronological order, so let's start with the painting...

Thank goodness for Craigslist... It not only helped us furnish a lot of our apartment, but from it I acquired this sweet old window. $20. What a steal. It's pretty big, too-- like 4 ft x 2 ft or something like that. One of my best friends has a sweet old window in her apartment that is painted, so that was my inspiration here. The hardest thing about painting windows (just in case you decide to embark on this adventure) is that you have to think backwards... You want to paint on the back side of the panes so that it appears that you are looking through the window to the painting and it has a really sweet, smooth surface of glass instead of layer-y thick paint (which can be cool, too, but it has its place. And that's on canvas not glass windows). So when you paint on the back side, you have to start with the details and finish with the background. When you normally paint a picture you might start with a background layer and slowly get more detailed, painting in foreground and stuff. But for this you switch it. No more deciding you want to put something else on it and adding to it. Once you put another layer on the glass, you're done. The good news is that acrylic paint is fairly easy to scratch off, so if you mess up, it is technically re-do-able. I was a chicken with my decision-making so I put some cling-wrap over that sucker and tried a few different things before I settled on my final design. Anyway, I'll quit blabbing and show you some pictures...

The window originally... Do you see the awesome potential hiding in there?!

Paint: check.

Brushes: check.

Experimentin'... and being indecisive

I went with the polka-dot theme... I was inspired after the awesome fabric I re-covered our chairs in. And blue and green is kind of the theme in our apartment. Not too girly, not too manly...

Layer 1. Dots. I couldn't help taking a billion artsy pics of the paint globs in the sunlight. I'm such a dork.

Layer 2. I was originally just going to paint the entire background a solid color and keep it simple, then with the first pane, my strokes were super uneven and created this very brush-like effect. I liked it. Sooo....

I added layer 3: which was green behind the purple brush strokes. Brian says they remind him of "paths through a swamp." To me, some of them look like tornadoes, or a sunset on water, or the color scheme of Monsters, Inc. I can't decide.

And here's the final piece. It looks cooler in person.

So the plan for this is to hang it in our entry-way area. I'm thinking I'm gonna buy some hooks or just hammer some nails in the bottom and we'll use it as a coat-rack. AND, since it's glass, we also might buy a dry-erase marker and use it as a message board! Cute? Yes. Practical? Yes. Cheery? Definitely. Hoorah. Project complete. Well, almost.

Alright, on to part 2 of this blog... food. I love it. My favorite food happens to be risotto, and I made some killer risotto last night. Seriously, your mouth will be watering by the time you're done reading about it. You can do pretty much anything with risotto-- add veggies, meats, whatever. I even have a risotto cook book that has a recipe for risotto with squid ink. I kind of gag every time I see it, so I'm not sure I'm ready to get that crazy with it. Last night was risotto with butternut squash, broccoli, onions, and chicken, and boy oh boy, was it delightful... I just ate some leftovers for lunch and it was still completely wonderful and tasty. If you like carbs and chicken and feel a little guilty indulging in those without getting any veggies in, then this is the recipe for you. Brian (who historically does not eat veggies or anything besides chicken or pasta) even loved it. He didn't pick out the veggies! It was glorious! If you want the recipe, hit me up. Your life will be better for it.

If you recall a few weeks ago Brian and I blogged about our new interest in food and the benefits of eating local food. So, that's what we are going to do. We're going to eat local foods, foods with little to no preservatives, and cook from scratch whenever we can. We're lucky that we are where we are, with a farmers market down the street and lots of options available. We shop at Trader Joe's a lot, which is super fresh and free of gross-ness. For instance, I just had some applesauce from there and the ingredients were simple: peeled and cored apples and well water. Seriously, that was it. None of the ingredients that you can't pronounce or know where they came from. As far as meats go, that's where it gets more difficult and expensive, but it's worth it. No, we're not becoming vegetarians, but we are watching what we eat. For instance, no grain-fed beef, farmed salmon, or regular questionable chicken. For now, we're rolling with free-range chicken, and there are free-range organic whole chickens available at our farmers market (but there weren't any last week), and that venture may have to wait until I start getting a pay check. They are a bit more pricey.
Anyway, we watched "Super-size Me" last night. It was on the list of things we knew we should watch. It was fascinating. I recommend it.

Whew, that was a super long blog. Congrats if you read it all. :) Have a good one, kids!